How To Recover From A Failed Custom Software Project
A custom software should be created to fit your company’s purpose the best. As strongly as you believed in the performance of your last custom software project meeting your company’s requirements, it failed miserably. So how can you recover? In order to succeed in any business you have first to learn from your mistakes, and work to minimize the risk of failure handling your future software projects, which could mean starting a custom software project from scratch.
Invest According to Your Needs
You’ve invested so much in your former software that you don’t want to spend more money experimenting with a new one. Since the last project failed, you’ve probably already decided to be more conservative with your next software purchase. However, paying less for your custom software typically eliminates your ability to hire highly qualified software developers. Low-cost developers tend to underestimate the amount of work involved with their clients that can create a higher potential for project failure. It is essential, then, to hire a software developer that houses highly skilled developers who will provide a reasonable work estimation time instead of just promoting cheaper services.
Focus on Risk Management
The purpose of risk management is to identify, analyze and respond to project risks. Given the fact that over half of software projects fail, it would be irresponsible for you and your software development company not to estimate potential risks of what can go wrong. Good software developers will not rush to predict cost and deadline schedule without understanding your company’s infrastructure, DevOps maturity, and other variables that can affect the speed of software development.
Software Development Methodology
There are many business operations and software functions that have to be accounted for. Your software project could have failed because your developer skimmed over the phases of the software process. Even if the reasons why your software project failure are unknown, it doesn’t hurt for you to be more patient when your new developer asks more detailed questions that seem irrelevant to the immediate needs of your project; it’s an effective measure to take out the guesswork of what you and your software expert expect from the other.
Training Classes
People are resistant to change. It’s very important to have training classes to encourage both enthusiastic software users as well as those who will dig their heels at change into adopting the new software. Make a point of getting your software developer to utilize a course of action (methodology) that is compatible to the feedback they get from these training classes.
Software engineering is very hard to measure and estimate. Maintaining and enhancing the software to handle newly discovered problems or new requirements can require more time than the initial development of the software. Having a custom software project hosted and managed by the same specialists that created the system for you is an essential factor. The most sought-after software developers will possess experience in major development systems that are used today including:
- Microsoft SQL Server database systems
- Linux based MySQL and PostgreSQL database systems
- Standards-based X/HTML, CSS, Javascript, and AJAX user interfaces
- Microsoft’s.NET web application development platform
- Linux based PHP frameworks including Symphony and the Zend Framework
Contact us to help you build effective software that will accelerate the momentum and growth of your business. Don’t settle for a one-size-fits-all platform offered by a low-cost developer by paying for software that’s incompatible with your company’s needs. Fill out our form to schedule a consultation. Get started here.